Is PPV Marketing a Scam?

Paid advertising is really tricky, especially if you’re new to the IM world, and the first time people hear about pay-per-view traffic it’s pretty natural to wonder, “Is PPV marketing a scam?” The short answer is no, but proceed with A LOT of caution if you’re taking this route, and pay close attention to the resources and advice outlined in this post.

How Does PPV Marketing Work?

There are people all across the world that have installed software or browser toolbars that are linked to PPV networks. PPV networks allow advertisers or affiliates like you and me to place bids on that URL or keywords, so that whenever someone types FreeCreditReport.com into their browser, your website pops up to advertise your offer to that person. FreeCreditReport is just an example, of course, but you can bid on virtually any website you’d like and promote similar offers. I’ll take this one step further with a real-world example.

Say you opened up your browser right now and typed ToysRUs.com into the navigation bar and hit enter. If you had PPV software installed on your computer and I, an advertiser, were bidding on ToysRUs.com with my competing website that sold toys, your browser would take you to ToysRUs.com and a pop-up window would take you to my website simultaneously. Since I know you’re interested in toys, I may refer you to another toy website through my affiliate link to try and make commissions off of your purchases if you bought something from them.

So Is PPV Marketing a Scam?

Hopefully the example I’ve given above makes it clear that PPV marketing isn’t a scam, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy money. Many “gurus” and scammers out there paint a very pretty picture about how you can virtually print your own money using PPV marketing, but that is FAR from the truth. Just like any other form of paid advertising, it’s really easy to mess PPV marketing up and lose a lot of money.

PPV is a form of interruption marketing, and a pretty extreme one at that. Interruption marketing is always difficult to convert because it requires a visitor being completely interrupted from what they were doing, catching their attention VERY quickly, and flipping them onto a relevant product or service they could be interested in. Trust me, this is MUCH easier said than done.

Unlike other forms of paid advertising, PPV marketing is usually relatively cheap. Since it’s very hard to get to convert, that’s important. Most clicks run $0.50-$1.00 per click MINIMUM on Google these days, whereas you can often get PPV impressions for less than a penny each. It makes perfect sense because you’ll need a lot more impressions and interactions with consumers to get a conversion even if you’re really good.

What Do You Need to Pursue PPV?

If you really want to make money with PPV marketing, you’ll need to start developing many skills and need several resources. Here’s a list that should get you started:

Copywriting Skills: You’re going to need to get very good at writing headlines that instantly catch the attention of consumers. Again, you’re completely interrupting their intended path. Our instinct as humans is to instantly close anything that interrupts us this blatantly. So your website is going to need to capture their attention extremely quickly, and also have sales copy that engages them and moves them into your sales funnel effectively.

Basic Web Development Knowledge: No, you don’t need to know how to write code, but you do need to have a basic understanding of how to build a website. Some PPV markters direct link to offers through their affiliate link, whereas many others build out basic websites and landing pages to catch the consumer’s attention more effectively.

Landing Page Service (optional): If you don’t know how to write code but you still want really attractive, easy-to-use landing pages then you’ll probably want to sign up with a landing page service. I personally use LeadPages and am very happy there, but you could also check out Optimizely and Unbounce, two other very well-known and reputable companies.

A Decent Advertising Budget: PPV networks require you to make a deposit prior to running ads. The industry leader, Traffic Vance, now requires a minimum of $1,000 to be deposited into an account before advertisers can begin running ads on their network. Some less common, smaller PPV networks only require a $25 deposit, but don’t expect to go into this with $50 in your pocket and expect to be successful.

Getting into paid traffic of any kind requires a lot of trial and error, which usually results in at least a few hundred dollars being burned in testing during the early stages. A lot of money can be made once you “crack” any form of paid advertising, but there’s a learning curve, and that learning curve isn’t cheap.

Conversion Optimization Knowledge: There’s only so much you can learn from books and blogs when it comes to optimization conversion. I highly recommend the book “Landing Page Optimization” by Ash, Page, and Ginty (it’s a tough read but packed with valuable information). Most of your conversion optimization experience will come from launching campaigns, testing and trying new things, keeping a close eye on your data and analytics, and seeing what works vs. what doesn’t. This is one of the biggest reasons that you need a decent advertising budget before ever getting started.

Other VERY Helpful Resources

If you are going to pursue PPV marketing: I can’t emphasize highly enough how much you should consider joining a forum called Stack That Money. I know, the product name screams “SCAM!” but it’s actually an incredibly helpful community for anyone considering PPV marketing. There are a lot of veterans there that readily share their knowledge, although the membership isn’t cheap at $99 per month. I’m not an affiliate for STM, but I did review their forum and you can check that review out here to see if it fits your needs.

If you’re not going to pursue PPV marketing: So you know it’s not a scam now, but you don’t have the experience or money to feel comfortable jumping into it at this stage. There are still very valid approaches to internet marketing that you could pursue, and I highly recommend checking out my free training courses to read about some of those options.

Let Me Know You Stopped By!

Do you have any questions that I didn’t answer here? Maybe you’re just a really good person that would like to say “thanks” for this helpful post. Either way, leave a comment for me at the bottom of this page! It makes my day to hear from visitors and I take the time to personally reply to every comment, so I’d really like it if you did!

About the Author

I've been in internet marketing for over 10 years, and I've purchased dozens of illegitimate products for the sole purpose of evaluating them and exposing the truth about these products to anyone who's thinking about purchasing it. I never let money influence my rating of a product and your success/safety is my absolute highest priority.
Don't want to buy a product? Register for one of my 100% free internet marketing training courses>>

Leave a Comment:

I believe most of the most active, experienced internet marketers at STM are owners so they are compensated for their time and effort by the revenue the site generates. I could be wrong, but based on the incredible amount of quality and detail they spent helping others in the forums I don’t see any other sustainable way for them to contribute so generously.